Image via AdWeek

It’s early enough into the new year that you probably remember the horrific MS Paint meets clip art Gap logo redesign. After a slew of negative feedback on the new design, the company (wisely) decided that they’d fixed something that wasn’t broken and reverted to the old logo. After releasing a new, wordless logo Starbucks is facing a similar bit of online outrage, but don’t look for Starbucks to pull a Gap-like “just kidding!” and dump the new logo.

For starters, even though the name of the coffee shop behemoth has been dropped from the new logo, the siren and color are still recognizable as belonging to Starbucks. Gap’s now current, once former logo was already so simple that taking parts away just didn’t make sense. Even though McDonald’s doesn’t always use its name in logos, there’s no mistaking the golden arches for any other hamburger chain. Nike’s swoosh doesn’t require a name to be recognized, neither do Adidas’ 3 stripes.

Then, you have the fact that Starbucks isn’t just coffee, and if they want to emphasize that as part of their growth plans, it probably helps to not be tied to a logo that says coffee. While you might still buy workout clothing if Nike’s logo included the word “sneakers,” it’s not necessary and after a certain point would probably limit the brand. If Starbucks wants to emphasize their teas, or sandwiches or pastries, building a brand around a point that’s more about Starbucks and less about coffee, it’s not a bad move.

If anything, this is more reminiscent about Facebook’s various redesigns over the years. With each change, vocal users would demand the old, familiar design back (that includes us) and threaten a mass exodus if it didn’t happen. Inevitably, no one left in mass, and those that did were replaced with two or three new users. Somehow we’re thinking this is a change most Starbucks patrons will be able to swallow as well.

Back to Gap: The Gap's new logo is now their old logo

On one hand, we give credit to companies that understand they have to keep up with the times. On the other, when you have a logo that’s been around as long as the Gap’s has, why trade it all in for yet another Helvetica logo?

But in all the furor over Gap’s new (now old) logo, you may have missed out on another logo competing in the “you paid how much for that?” rebranding category.

In case you haven’t been there in a few years, let us reintroduce you to MySpace. {TechCrunch} You remember them, right? They’re the social network which got dethroned by that other social network, currently  having a Hollywood moment. Given that MySpace’s old logo hasn’t been able to encourage enough nostalgia to keep users from abandoning the site for Facebook, rebranding makes a bit more sense here. Plus, the old logo wasn’t really that great, so what have they got to lose?

5 letters apparently. When users left the site, perhaps they took some letters along with them. Call it the equivalent of leaving with office supplies when you leave a job. The positives: at least they didn’t use Helvetica (a lovely font, really, but overused). The negatives: everything else. While we’re sure using a line to represent a space sounded like a cute idea in theory, it fails in practice.

As a promotional campaign, perhaps it works. As a logo, we get that MySpace wants to represent a network that everyone can make into their own thing, but it could also represent the vast amount of space from all of the users migrating to Facebook. Or the uncertainty of how to reclaim any of their former glory. Any ideas? Fill in the blank.